Edward Gardner Conducts a Visceral Wozzeck at the Royal Festival Hall
The Guardian Classical Music
Title: Edward Gardner Conducts a Visceral Wozzeck at the Royal Festival Hall. Edward Gardner’s concert performance of Berg’s Wozzeck at the Royal Festival Hall demonstrated that the work’s power resides in its rigorous internal logic rather than theatrical artifice. The London Philharmonic’s execution of the score’s complex Sprechstimme (a vocal technique that merges speech and singing) provided a psychological clarity that visual elements, including Ilya Shagalov’s video art, struggled to match. While the multimedia approach aimed for heightened visceral impact, the musical anchor remained the LPO’s sharp rhythmic profile and orchestral color. The production underscores a fundamental truth: Berg’s score, which meticulously calculates every degree of human suffering, requires no external amplification. Score on IMSLP.